1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a traffic congestion detection apparatus, and a vehicle control apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
A vehicle control apparatus is available which is designed to determine traffic congestion based on a traffic report or a traveling pattern of a vehicle and to cause the vehicle to travel according to a result of the determination. For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-324661 (JP-A-2605-324661) describes a vehicle control apparatus which is designed such that a length of traffic congestion is calculated based on traffic congestion information or a traveling pattern of a vehicle and the vehicle is operated automatically when the length of traffic congestion is not less than a predetermined value.
However, the vehicle control apparatus described in JP-A-2005-324661 is not able to achieve a high accuracy in determination of traffic congestion due to delayed traffic report or erroneous determination of the traveling pattern. Further, the vehicle control apparatus described in JP-A-2005-324661, which determines whether or not automatic operation of the vehicle is to be performed based on a length of traffic congestion, is not able to adapt to various traveling states of the vehicle in the traffic congestion.